Azerbaijan, Baku, 22 March / Trend A.Akhundov /
The World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts an increase of 7.5 per cent in the production of the extra cost applicable to the tourism sector in Azerbaijan by 2022. This is stated in the WEF's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013.
According to the organisation, Azerbaijan's GDP in the tourism industry reached $1.1 billion in 2012, representing 1.9 per cent of total GDP, whereas GDP in the tourism economy reached the value of $4.12 billion (6.9 per cent).
The WEF also expects an increase of employment in the tourism sector by 2.7 per cent in the next 10 years. The report says that in 2012, there were 277 employees for 1000 jobs in this sector in Azerbaijan, including 73.3 employees in the tourism industry.
In 2011, some 1.56 million foreign tourists visited Azerbaijan, bringing $1.29 billion to the country's economy.
Today the majority of tourists come to Azerbaijan from neighbouring countries. However the growth trend has been observed in the number of tourists from European countries as well as from Japan, China and South Korea, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Nazim Samadov said.
According to him, along with development of infrastructure, the quality of services offered to tourists needs to be improved as well. If as in 2003 the tourism sector employed 2678 people, by 2012 this figure has reached 8000.
"In 2001, there were 69 hotels and hotel type objects operating in the country, in 2006 - 288 and in 2012 - 520. These facilities employ 6150 workers. To date 221 licensed tourism companies operate in the country," Samadov said.
According to him, in 2003 Azerbaijan was visited by more than one million tourists, whereas in 2012 this figure rose to 2.484 million. Expenditure of tourists in the country increased from $57.7 million to $1.3 billion," Samadov said.
Azerbaijan has risen from 83rd to 78th position in the WEF ranking published every two years. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index covers 140 countries.